Story resurfaces of white minister passing as black pastor

A plaque at St. Mark AME lists the names of the church’s pastors. L.M. Fenwick was pastor from 1902 to 1904, according to church records. The revelation that he was white split the church flock, according to a Milwaukee Sentinel story. Credit: Angela Peterson

July 03, 2015

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In 1903, a white man named L.M. Fenwick passed himself off as a black minister at the city's most historic black church, St. Mark AME at 1616 W. Atkinson Ave.Angela Peterson

On Oct. 11, 1903, the Milwaukee Sentinel published an unusual story with a provocative headline: "Pastor Fenwick Is A White Man."

The article detailed how congregants in the city's oldest black church, St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal, discovered their spiritual leader was white.

Rev. L.M. Fenwick had to reveal his race on the witness stand when he testified against a young African-American who was accused of burglarizing the pastor's home.

When asked if he admitted to the court that he was white, Fenwick told the Sentinel, "What would you say I am? I never claimed to be anything else."

Louis Fenwick's story doesn't completely match that of Rachel Dolezal, the former head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP who claimed she was black when in fact she is white.

But it provides a long-ago glimpse into what occurred in Milwaukee when a white person attempted to slip across a racial line.

"Any set of rules that in form and substance is fiction will bend and break in all kinds of different ways," said Daniel Sharfstein, a Vanderbilt University law professor whose book "The Invisible Line" traced three families that crossed the racial divide.

"The situation with Pastor Fenwick is not the only time that white people claimed African-American status," he said.

Andrew Cohen, a Syracuse University history professor, has done some research on Fenwick through old newspapers and census records.

In an email, Cohen said Fenwick "was working as a teacher in Indiana in the (late) 1800s when two women accused him of impregnating them. The court basically forced him to marry one of these women. They remained married for a time, but separated, after which she shows up in the census as black or 'mulatto.' He appears in the (1930) census as a white physician, but lives among people of color."

"So my guess is that he was either a white man who liked blacks or a very, very light skinned man of color moving back and forth across the color line," Cohen added

Fenwick was pastor at St. Mark AME from 1902 to 1904, according to church records. The revelation that he was white split the church flock, according to the Sentinel story.

Fenwick told the newspaper that he developed ties to the AME church while in Iowa. He joined a congregation in Keokuk in 1881, was ordained a deacon in Cedar Rapids in 1886, and became a church elder in Oskaloosa in 1888.

"I have been in the service of the church for nearly 20 years and now this little coterie of malcontents wants to drive me out," he said. "They can't do it. The church has never been in as good a condition in this city as it is today. These people who are making this trouble are people who neglect their church duties."

He also showed off his diplomas, including one from Barnes Medical College in St. Louis.

Fenwick's undoing as pastor came after the burglary arrest of J.W. Bess. During the trial, Bess' lawyer asked Fenwick, "Are you a white man?"

"I am a gentleman," Fenwick said according to the newspaper account.

There was a squabble among the lawyers and the judge finally decided, "You may answer the question."

According to the newspaper, "The witness held forth the palms of his hands so that the court and the officers of the court could see them, and replied: 'I am a white man.' "

Bess was eventually cleared of the burglary charge.

Two churchgoers who were in the court "carried the news to their homes that the parson of the African church was a white man," triggering the split in the church, according to the Sentinel.

Fenwick defended himself by claiming there were a large number of white clergymen in the church, including a prominent bishop, Rev. C.T. Shaffer.

There were some white pastors in the AME church. Dickerson's daughter, historian Christina Dickerson-Cousin, has written on James F.A. Sisson, a white man who ministered in the Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma.

Dickerson-Cousin said she had "never heard" of a white person trying to pass himself off as a black minister.

When told of Fenwick's story, Rev. Darryl R. Williams, the pastor of St. Mark AME, said he wasn't surprised.

"For whatever reason, this Pastor Fenwick thought maybe he wanted to be a part of who we are," Williams said. "I'd have the same issue with that as I would with the lady in Washington State, I'd rather you be transparent or authentic and say who you are."

About Bill Glauber

Bill Glauber is a general assignment reporter, focusing on profiles and politics.